John Marino netted the decisive goal late in the third period, and Vitek Vanecek made 35 saves as the New Jersey Devils triumphed over the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Tuesday night.
The Avalanche had tied the game with two quick goals earlier in the third period, but Marino put New Jersey back in the lead at 17:43 with his fourth goal of the season.
Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Chris Tierney, and Erik Haula also scored for New Jersey, which had lost its previous two games. Nico Hischier contributed two assists.
“We’ve been resilient all year,” Marino said. “Giving up the lead and returning to win against a great team is huge for us.”
Trailing 3-1 just eight minutes into the third, Colorado defensemen Cale Makar and Samuel Girard scored 29 seconds apart to tie the game. The Avalanche lead the league in goals and points from defensemen with 42 and 158, respectively.
Makar’s goal came at 8:29, followed by Girard’s at 8:58. Makar now has 306 points in 284 career games, just one point shy of tying Tyson Barrie as the highest-scoring defenseman in franchise history.
Mikko Rantanen also scored, and Jonathan Drouin had two assists for the Avalanche, who lead the league with 70 third-period goals.
“We were chasing the game a little bit,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We were doing some good things in the last two minutes. It was a slapshot right in the middle of the hash marks that cost us.”
Bratt’s 20th goal of the season came against Avalanche rookie netminder Justus Annunen at 3:49 of the second period, putting New Jersey ahead after the teams traded goals in the first.
Bratt, who leads New Jersey with 52 points, has reached the 20-goal mark for the third consecutive season. He had a career-high 32 goals last year.
Mercer extended the lead to 3-1 with his 14th goal at 6:47 of the second.
“I thought we played a heck of a game,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “We have to win at home.”
The Devils were playing for the first time since their 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Jan. 27.
Vanecek, who won 33 games last season in his first campaign with the Devils, improved to 17-8-2.
“He was solid for us all night, and we feed off that, so it was huge,” Marino said.
Rantanen opened the scoring 1:23 into the game with his 28th goal of the season, intercepting a Devils clearing attempt and rifling the puck past Vanecek.
Tierney tied it 42 seconds later with his first goal of the season and first with the Devils.
Annunen started for Colorado after Alexandar Georgiev played in Monday’s 2-1 loss to the Rangers. Annunen made 26 saves.
Devils forward Tyler Toffoli, who leads the team with 21 goals, was scratched due to illness.
New Jersey’s Jack Hughes missed his 11th straight game with an upper-body injury. Hughes, who has 15 goals and 45 points in 32 games, hasn’t played since Jan. 5 when he was injured late in a home win over Chicago. Hughes has been skating with the team in practice recently.
New Jersey also missed injured defensemen Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Brendan Smith.
The game marked the return of Miles Wood to New Jersey. Wood played 402 games over parts of eight seasons for the Devils before joining the Avalanche as a free agent last summer.
“The buildup was more weird than the actual game for me,” said Wood. “I spent a lot of time here. It was great to see everyone.”
Colorado’s leading scorer, Nathan MacKinnon, had his 14-game point streak snapped. He had extended the streak by scoring Colorado’s only goal in Monday’s loss to the Rangers.
Vanecek denied MacKinnon 28 seconds before Marino scored, a play Ruff cited as especially key.
“You can sum up the game right there,” Ruff said. “You need a big save, and he did a great job.”
UP NEXT
- Devils: Host Calgary on Thursday night.
- Avalanche: Visit Carolina on Thursday night to continue a six-game road trip.
